The present invention relates to a seat belt guide.
A seat belt guide of the type known from DE 199 40 852 A1 has a low friction material provided on a flexing bar in the region of a belt webbing guide face. The guide body can be produced from a metal plate by pressing and has a flexing bar with a substantially C-shaped cross-section. The flexing bar is connected to an anchoring plate via flexing bar carriers leaving a relatively narrow belt webbing guide aperture. The belt webbing guide face on the flexing bar has low friction, provided for example by a single or multi-layer plating or galvanizing or by a multi-layer coating with solid lubricating properties. This surface treatment is relatively expensive.
There is provided in accordance with the present invention a seat belt guide with low friction in the region of the belt webbing guide face of the flexing bar. A sliding shell made of a low friction material is placed on the belt webbing guide face of the flexing with an interlocking fit and over the two faces of the transition points between the flexing bar and flexing bar carrier and, if necessary, at least partially over the flexing bar carrier. The sliding shell, which can be a plastic clip, has a wall thickness of the order of about 0.4 mm to 0.6 mm. The inner contour of the sliding shell rests with an interlocking fit on the surface of the metallic flexing bar and forms the low-friction belt webbing guide face of the guide in the belt guide aperture of the metallic guide body. The adhesive force with which the sliding shell is clipped with an interlocking fit on the flexing bar is dimensioned such that it can diminish the forces that occur at least during normal belt retractor operation. The two lateral edges of the sliding shell preferably project beyond the two rounded regions of the transition points of the flexing bar carrier extending vertically with respect to the flexing bar. As a result there is achieved, at the two ends of the sliding shell, a flanging over the two laterally rounded-off regions of the sliding shell, which laterally define the belt webbing guide aperture. As a result the sliding shell is fixed in all directions. Vertical and/or horizontal movement of the sliding shell on the metallic guide body is therefore prevented. The sliding shell defines the belt webbing guide aperture in the guide body in the regions in which the seat belt webbing is guided and deflected around. With a three point seat belt system, the guide forms the upper guide point of the webbing, lying above the shoulder of the vehicle occupant. During retraction and extraction of the seat belt an ideal sliding surface is achieved without any friction or friction angle contours, in particular due to the flanging of the sliding shell ends in the lateral rounded parts of the belt webbing guide aperture. Even with oblique extraction of the seat belt, there is no danger of the edges of the seat belt webbing catching with high friction in the corner contours or other contours of the guide body.